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Strong Circumstantial Prevalence

October 18, 2018

72 babies born with microcephaly—plus 2 WHO-confirmed cases—indicate “strong evidence” of a Zika cluster in Angola. But a lack of capacity for advanced testing coupled with a meager national health system mean tracking a potential outbreak will be difficult.

Microcephaly is not associated with the African strain of the virus, signifying that Zika’s Asian strain has found its way to the continent. Experts are considering whether travel ties between Brazil and Africa contributed to the jump since the only confirmed cases of the Asian strain on the continent to date have been in 2 Portuguese-speaking countries.